MSI Announces New AMD And Intel Motherboards With USB 3.1

MSI recently announced a torrent of new motherboards that feature USB 3.1 ports. The refreshed lineup includes ten Intel models and, in an interesting twist, two AMD motherboards. MSI’s new motherboards support USB 3.1 by using an Asmedia ASM1352R controller that interfaces with the system via two PCI-E 2.0 lanes (PCI-E 2.0 x2). The controller is rated for the full 10Gbps USB 3.1 speeds.

It is worth noting that the boards use the traditional USB Type-A connector with one exception. The MSI Z97A Gaming 6 features the new reversible Type-C connector in the form of a single Type-C USB 3.1 port on the rear I/O panel. The other boards have at least two USB 3.1 ports on their rear I/O panels.

The new USB 3.1-supporting lineup is listed below:

AMD (970 chipset):

SLI Krait Edition

AMD (990FX chipset):

990FXA Gaming

Intel (Z97 chipset):

Z97A Gaming 9 ACK

Z97A Gaming 7

Z97A Gaming 6

Intel (X99 chipset):

X99A Gaming 9 ACK

X99A Gaming 7

X99A Xpower AC

X99A Mpower

X99A SLI Krait Edition

X99A SLI Plus

X99A Raider

These new boards are all essentially minor refreshes of previous versions that add the Asmedia controller and faster USB 3.1 ports. You can expect all the multi-GPU and overclocking-friendly features to remain present on these new motherboards.

AM3+ is still technically AMD's enthusiast platform, but it is still somewhat odd that MSI chose to add USB 3.1 support to AM3+ motherboards with AMD’s aging 990FX and 970 chipsets rather than FM2+ boards with the newer A88X chipset. On the other hand, you can now add much faster external storage to your AM3+ system to give it a bit more life.

There is no word on pricing but expect the USB 3.1 models to come at a slight premium over the older models in each respective series.

Question: I've seen usb C cables for sale, and they are expensive. The cheapest I've seen is 30$ for 1.5 feet. Is that simply because they are new OR is this like thunderbolt where the cable is hardware, not just a simple pass through?